scholarly journals Hradiště u Mařína (okr. Svitavy) a jeho širší zázemí ve světle kovových artefaktů z 6.–10. století / Hillfort near Mařín (East Bohemia) and its broad hinterland in light of metal artefacts from the 6th to 10th century AD

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-422
Author(s):  
David Vích ◽  
Naďa Profantová ◽  
Roman Křivánek ◽  
Zuzana Jarůšková ◽  
Jan Zavřel
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Metal Detector ◽  
The Past ◽  
Metal Artefacts

The article evaluates the results of systematic metal detector surveys from the borderland between east Bohemia and northwest Moravia over the past fifteen years, supplemented with a geophysical survey of early medieval hillfort near Mařín (Svitavy district). The conducted surveys have produced imports of Byzantine and Carolingian origin (strap ends, loops, spear tip) from the 7th to 9th century, with cast ornaments of the Late Avar type from the 8th century occurring in the greatest numbers. The spatial distribution of early medieval artefacts outside the traditional settlement territory shows ties to defunct roads preserved in the form of sunken lanes.

scholarly journals Edelmetallgegenstände als Quellen zu sozialen Prozessen der Spätawarenzeit (8.–9. Jahrhundert n. Chr.)

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-452
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Precious Metal ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Carpathian Basin ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Metal Artefacts ◽  
The Social

Abstract The present paper analyses the precious metal artefacts, scarcely known in the huge archaeological material of the “late Avar period” (eighth to early ninth centuries AD). Unlike in the previous era the majority of the gold and silver objects of the late Avar period are stray finds; in particular high-quality goldsmith's artefacts are absent in the grave assemblages of the eighth century. The significance of precious metal objects in grave assemblages reached its low ebb around the middle of the late Avar period; afterwards not only new object types appeared but a new grave-horizon emerged comprising precious metal objects. This paper, based on the quality and morphology of the objects, their archaeological contexts as well as their spatial distribution, draws a conclusion concerning the social and cultural changes in the early medieval Carpathian Basin.

Re-appraising and Re-classifying: a New Look at the Corpus of Miniature Socketed Axes from Britain

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Alex Bliss
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Object Type ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Extensive Data ◽  
Metal Artefacts ◽  
The Subject

The advent of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) has added a great deal to our understanding of prehistoric metal artefacts in England and Wales, namely in expanding enormously the corpuses of objects previously thought to be quite scarce. One such artefact type is the miniature socketed 'votive' axe, most of which are found in Wiltshire and Hampshire. As a direct result of developing such recording initiatives, reporting of these artefacts as detector finds from the early 2000s onwards has virtually trebled the number originally published by Paul Robinson in his 1995 analysis. Through extensive data-collection, synthesising examples recorded via the PAS with those from published excavations, the broad aims of this paper (in brief) are as follows: firstly, produce a solid typology for these artefacts; secondly, investigate their spatial distribution across England and Wales. As a more indirect third aim, this paper also seeks to redress the imbalance of focus and academic study specifically applying to Hampshire finds of this object type, which despite producing a significant proportion of the currently known corpus have never been the subject of detailed analysis.

Building on the Past: Medieval and postmedieval essays in honour of Tom Beaumont James

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Southern England ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
The Past

This engaging volume highlights the scholarship of Tom Beaumont James in advancing the study of medieval and early modern artefacts, buildings, gardens and towns. It largely focuses on the history and archaeology of central Southern England and its seventeen papers range from the early medieval period to the nineteenth century.

Collecting the Desert in the Carolingian West

2006 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynda Coon
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Monastic Reform ◽  
The Past ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
Hebrew Scripture ◽  
Egyptian Desert

AbstractThe Egyptian desert summoned for its early medieval progeny memories of a past age of superhuman askêsis that posed a challenge to Carolingian attempts at Benedictine hegemony. In response, the architects of ninth-century monastic reform labored to present their votaries with a carefully controlled memory of the Egyptian past, and they did so through a propagandistic aesthetic of literary, visual, and ritual "bricolage." Jaś Elsner defines this aesthetic of bricolage as an artistic form based on symbolic ownership of the past through the display of ancient spolia on contemporary monuments (e.g., the sculptured reliefs collected from past, imperial regimes and exhibited as spolia on the Arch of Constantine) or the layering of present-day texts with past literary forms (e.g., Christian typological exegesis of Hebrew Scripture). Similarly, for the Carolingians, who also ventured into the artistic realm of bricolage, collecting, embodying, and displaying were methods of exerting control over the past.

Between Rescue and Research: An Evaluation after 30 Years of Liberal Metal Detecting in Archaeological Research and Heritage Practice in Denmark

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 704-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andres S. Dobat
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Metal Detector ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Danish Experience ◽  
Metal Detectors

Since the early 1980s, metal detector surveying conducted by amateur archaeologists has contributed significantly to archaeological research and heritage practice in Denmark. Here, metal detecting has always been legal, and official stakeholders pursue a liberal model, focusing on cooperation and inclusion rather than confrontation and criminalization. Like no other surveying method since the invention of the shovel, the metal detector has contributed to increasing enormously the amount of data and sites from metal-rich periods. Virtually all of the spectacular and ground-breaking discoveries of the past decades are owed to metal detectors in the hands of amateur archaeologists. And it is these finds and sites that today constitute one of the very foci of archaeological research. This article provides an overview of the current status of liberal metal detector archaeology in Denmark 30 years after its inception, and attempts to identify the reasons why this popular hobby never developed into the problem it has become in other parts of the world. It concludes that the success of the liberal model in Denmark is the result of a very complex interplay of legislative, historical, cultural, and social factors. On this basis, it is discussed whether the Danish experience can be used as a source of inspiration in the necessary progression towards a new legal agenda for responsible metal detector archaeology.

scholarly journals Hydrological Studies of the Dniester Estuary in 2012-2017

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Conductivity ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Hydrological Regime ◽  
Bottom Layer ◽  
Water Transparency ◽  
Hydrological Characteristics ◽  
The Past ◽  
Influence Effect ◽  
Standard Techniques

Purpose. The study of the features of long-term changes of the Dniester Estuary hydrological regime main characteristics in 2012-2017 based on the results of annual surveys performed by Odessa National I. I. Mechnikov University. Methods. Measuring of the water transparency, temperature and electrical conductivity in the surface and near-bottom layers were carried out using standard techniques with Secchi disk and portable HACH analyser with temperature and conductivity sensors. Results. Based on the studies performed, almost two times decrease in water transparency values in summer of 2012-2017 has been established compared with the same period of 2003-2011. It was shown that the maximum transparency values were observed in the southern part of the estuary, where the presence of seawater is almost constant. Analysis of electrical conductivity spatial distribution has revealed practically constant influence effect of seawater intrusion in the southern part of the estuary, especially in the bottom layer, and periodical influence effect in the middle and northern parts. Significant increasing of the range of water temperature and electrical conductivity variations in the Dniester Estuary has been recorded in summer 2012-2017 comparison with summer 2003-2011. Conclusions. The established peculiarities of hydrological characteristics’ spatial distribution indicate that river discharge and intrusion of marine water are the most important factors determining the Dniester Estuary hydrological regime. Increase of temperature and conductivity of the Dniester Estuary water in summer 2012-2017 in comparison with 2003-2011 was registered. An anomalous penetration of marine waters into most part of the estuary was detected in July 2016, which in the past was observed for the last time in 2011.

scholarly journals A “Forgotten” Coin-Shaped Indication from the Early Medieval Burial Complex in Tuekta (Central Altai)

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Nikolay N. Seregin ◽  
Vladimir V. Tishin ◽  
Vadim V. Serov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
The Past ◽  
Central Altai ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Chronological Period ◽  
Social Markers

The article is dedicated to the publication of a unique find that is a coin-shaped indication from the early medieval burial complex in Tuekta (Central Altai) and an attempt of its comprehensive analysis. Excavations of the archaeological site were carried out in the 1930s during the work of the Sayan-Altai expedition led by S.V. Kiselev, however, since then, the metioned find has not attracted the attention of researchers. The article presents a detailed description of the coin-shaped indication and the analysis of the applied images, it is there also given the characteristic of the archaeological context of the discovery of the object and discuss the possibility of reading fixed signs. As a result, it is presented an attempt to interpret the product in a specific historical and cultural context taking into account the materials received over the past decades. It should be noted the absence of identical archaeological finds in the numismatic collections. At the same time, an analysis of the details of the image on the coin-shaped indication made it possible to outline a wide range of analogies demonstrating the complex processes of cultural contacts in large territories of Eurasia over a long chronological period. The authors came to the conclusion that the analysed product, as well as other like finds from the archaeological sites of the Türks of Inner Asia, to be a kind of “social markers”, demonstrating their owners’ belonging to the elite strata of the nomadic society and, possibly, reflect their specific authority. The proposed interpretation of such things, given their scarcity, as well as the context of discovery not being obvious, seems debatable and, of course, requires the emergence of new data as a result of further archaeological research

scholarly journals Mycobacterium leprae diversity and population dynamics in medieval Europe from novel ancient genomes

BMC Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saskia Pfrengle ◽  
Judith Neukamm ◽  
Meriam Guellil ◽  
Marcel Keller ◽  
Martyna Molak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mycobacterium Leprae ◽  
Population Diversity ◽  
Global History ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Genotype ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
High Diversity

Abstract Background Hansen’s disease (leprosy), widespread in medieval Europe, is today mainly prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions with around 200,000 new cases reported annually. Despite its long history and appearance in historical records, its origins and past dissemination patterns are still widely unknown. Applying ancient DNA approaches to its major causative agent, Mycobacterium leprae, can significantly improve our understanding of the disease’s complex history. Previous studies have identified a high genetic continuity of the pathogen over the last 1500 years and the existence of at least four M. leprae lineages in some parts of Europe since the Early Medieval period. Results Here, we reconstructed 19 ancient M. leprae genomes to further investigate M. leprae’s genetic variation in Europe, with a dedicated focus on bacterial genomes from previously unstudied regions (Belarus, Iberia, Russia, Scotland), from multiple sites in a single region (Cambridgeshire, England), and from two Iberian leprosaria. Overall, our data confirm the existence of similar phylogeographic patterns across Europe, including high diversity in leprosaria. Further, we identified a new genotype in Belarus. By doubling the number of complete ancient M. leprae genomes, our results improve our knowledge of the past phylogeography of M. leprae and reveal a particularly high M. leprae diversity in European medieval leprosaria. Conclusions Our findings allow us to detect similar patterns of strain diversity across Europe with branch 3 as the most common branch and the leprosaria as centers for high diversity. The higher resolution of our phylogeny tree also refined our understanding of the interspecies transfer between red squirrels and humans pointing to a late antique/early medieval transmission. Furthermore, with our new estimates on the past population diversity of M. leprae, we gained first insights into the disease’s global history in relation to major historic events such as the Roman expansion or the beginning of the regular transatlantic long distance trade. In summary, our findings highlight how studying ancient M. leprae genomes worldwide improves our understanding of leprosy’s global history and can contribute to current models of M. leprae’s worldwide dissemination, including interspecies transmissions.

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